Dalat

So yesterday kind of sucked and therefore doesn't need its own blog. We went to the beach for a bit then got on a bus for a long time. I managed to get one of the worst seats on the bus but embraced it (our new motto) and tried to sleep the whole way. At about 7am we got to Nha Trang (not our desired destination) and got told to swap buses. We had to wait an hour so got some bread and a coffee (I'm going to continue to rave about these; Alexander Green, I'll make you one when I'm home) before being rudely sent off to another company to travel on their bus. Our bus company isn't the best. The seats are pretty good but the service is appalling. I stupidly googled the company and read review after review of how bad it is. Oh well, only 2 more buses left. From Nha Trang we managed to get a minibus with a nice driver. My seat didn't have a seat belt so I told him to drive carefully. He took it seriously and for a Vietnamese man, he drove well. We sat in the front seats with the driver for most of the way, enjoying the beautiful scenery of hills (they could have been mountains) and valleys all the way to Dalat (the correct destination). 

At this point it was just past midday and due to an early breakfast we found the first place we could for food. A plate of rice with barbecued pork in some nice marinade and a fried egg for 25,000 dong was just the ticket. We were ready to find our hostel. It took us a little while as the hostel was on the other side of town but by 2pm we had dumped our bags, showered and were back out, ready to explore. 

There were three sites we had chosen to see: the first was called Crazy House. Our guidebook described the architecture perfectly as Gaudi on acid. Some woman, who was a very qualified architect, had designed this creation of various treehouses, all joined together with staircases. The lady still lives there now at the age of 75 with her family. Definitely worth a visit if you ever find yourself in the Dalat area. 

Next up was a summer palace of some prince. We thought it was going to be impressive. It looked like something from the 70s. Brightly coloured bath suites and floors and cupboards. The smell of it reminded me of my grandparents home in Evesham which was quite comforting but it didn't look like a palace. The gardens surrounding it were quite nice though with a bit of modern planting. 

After quite a walk we found some more modern planting at the flower park, just past the lake. Full of different flowers and bushes and trees, the place was lovely. My favourite was something that looked like a willow but it was flowering these subtle red flowers. There were also hedges made into dragon shapes, curving up and down for a few metres. My mummy would have liked it. 

Our hostel puts on a meal each night so for a couple of quid we thought it would be good to chat to people and see what they've done in Dalat. We obviously sat on the wrong cushions as I tried to talk to some American girls but they would tell me about their life and then go back to talking to others. Apparently I'm not cool enough for Californian girls. The food was pretty nice though with rice, noodles, stir fried veg, pork, chicken, aubergine and a seafood and tofu hotpot. I tried everything obviously.